I have been unusually silent this week. We are in Albuquerque for Spring Break and between stomach flu, running errands, and trips to the zoo, the aquarium, and Taos, there has not been much time for blogging!
Of course in Albuquerque there are stores more exciting than our Walmart, and children’s activities more novel than the local playground, but one of the most unusual things (for us) that is in Albuquerque, is television. Amazingly, apart from some early-morning fascination with PBS, the kids don’t seem to care much about watching it. Running around catching bugs in the courtyard is much more in keeping with their usual lifestyle.
I haven’t watched much TV either, however I did happen to catch most of this Today Show segment yesterday morning on “overly-wired” families and the benefits of unplugging. In typical Today Show format it was pretty rapid-fire without a lot of substantive information, but it could be worth a quick look for anyone interested in the subject.
Is Your Family Too Wired?
I recently had a birthday. Yes, another one, but as my mother used to say: “At least it’s better than the alternative!” For my birthday my two oldest made me cards. Well, they didn’t exactly “make” the cards themselves, they used some blank cards someone had given them and wrote sweet messages inside. I tried not to take it personally that the pictures on the front of the cards were of dinosaurs!
The dinosaur thing got me thinking. I know my kids can’t understand time yet. I don’t think they believe me when I tell them that even though Mommy is old, she is not old enough to have gone bronco-riding on the back of a T-Rex.
When I tell them that there were no computers or cell phones when I was a child, they look at me like I have twelve heads. We didn’t even have cordless phones! “How did you talk?” “Well, we talked fine, but we just had to stand there tied to the phone by a long curly cord.” STAND THERE? I can see the wheels turning in their brains. You mean you had to just talk? You didn’t do the dishes, make beds, and change a diaper all while talking on the phone? Wow! What an odd concept!
Technology gives us the gift (?) of multitasking. We no longer do just one thing at a time. The Buddhists believe that you must “live in the moment,” savor every experience, enjoy the feeling of the water on your hands as you do the dishes, the texture of the sheets as you tuck them in, the smell of your baby as you change a diaper (well, maybe not then, not even for Buddhists). I believe that there is a lot to the theory that real happiness is indeed, living in the moment. Can we truly appreciate life as we race headlong through it, crazily attempting to accomplish five things at once?
How on earth did I get from dinosaurs to the meaning of life? This post has certainly taken on a direction all its own! There is another dinosaur-inspired post brewing in my head. More on that later. But for now, have a peaceful Saturday with your family and remember to put down that phone and enjoy life!
Thanks to morguefile.com and photographer Melodi2 for this unusual photo!
Everything Else!, hightech vs. lowtech, silly ramblings, simpler times
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family life, hightech vs. lowtech, humor, humour, kid quotes, multi-tasking, multitasking, simplifying, technology simplicity, the old days
Today I saw the first spring robin on my way to school with the kids! That sight always fills me with some hope for a warmer future.
As of yesterday, it is a little easier to believe that spring is truly on the way. Yesterday was so warm that the kids had a friend over and played outside most of the afternoon. After being shut indoors for so long, it was refreshing to see them run around, have a “picnic,” and play on the swing set. They also enjoyed all the mud that the snow has left behind. I guess I’ll be doing some laundry today!
It occurs to me as I write this, that this is the type of information that I would have written in a letter in the days when people actually wrote letters. Since the theme of this blog is essentially “high-tech” vs. “low-tech,” it makes me realize that a blog actually seems to be a “high-tech” way of delivering “low-tech” (in most cases) information.
Perhaps we all miss the days of seeing a familiar envelope in our mailbox and knowing that it brought very ordinary news from dear friends or family. There was comfort in that connection, a sense of belonging. Do I experience that same thrill of pleasure and surprise when I open an email from a friend? No. Would I email my friends to tell them about the robin I saw this morning? No. Would I have described that experience in a letter? Yes.
Perhaps our desire to connect with others in this fashion is a yearning for a return to simpler times.
Everything Else!, hightech vs. lowtech, musings, simpler times
| birds, hightech vs. lowtech, letters, nature, Robin, simplicity, simplifying, snail mail, spring, the old days
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